Fanfic / Glee Reprise

Glee Reprise is a Glee Flash Forward Fic by Sparky Young Upstart, who also authored Glee The Virtual Season Four.

Ever since Rachel's Tony win, she's become a Broadway star and never looked back. But things change when Shelby and Beth are involved in a terrible accident. Suddenly Rachel is abandoning New York for Akron so that she can take care of Beth.

Beth would like nothing to do with her so-called sister. But when she fails to secure a spot on Vocal Adrenaline, Rachel finds a way to start a new glee club for her right across the street in a run-down community centre. It's going to be a tough road, with egos clashing and relationships straining, but Rachel is certain that she and Beth can make it through.

Tropes in this work:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The leaders of Vocal Adrenaline have an absurd amount of power over Carmel High. They even have their own lunch table roped off from the rest of the students.
• Aesop Amnesia: At the end of episode four, Camilla is trying to accept that she shouldn't get too invested in boy drama and to not beat herself up about Bradley not remembering her. This is completely forgotten when Bradley tells her and Aaliyah that he wants to audition for the Reprisals, and bring Sharice along. Aaliyah tries to point out what a massive problem this will be, but Camilla just runs off singing I'm Every Woman by Whitney Houston.
• Alpha Bitch: All three leaders of Vocal Adrenaline are pretty smug, and hold considerable sway over the student body. Monica fully leans into it herself near the end of episode three.
  • Sharice is no slouch either, deliberately sabotaging Camilla's attempt to join the cheer squad and recruit for The Reprisals, followed by a severe tongue-lashing.
• Ambiguously Christian: Though Mary and Michael are Christian and go to a Catholic-themed private school, their own denominations aren't stated.
• The Beautiful Elite: In chapter three of Team-Building Exercise, Beth longingly looks at the Vocal Adrenaline table where the hottest and coolest students sit, with their part of the cafeteria roped off from the rest of the student body.
• Best Friend: Beth and Monica have been best friends since they were young. Unfortunately, their friendship comes to an end in the third episode.
• Camp Gay: Julian is sassy and fashionable, and Rachel immediately pegs him for being similar to Kurt.
• Condescending Compassion: Vocal Adrenaline's rendition of "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody" definitely comes off as this thanks to Monica's closing comment.
  Monica: Thank you, thank you so much. We love performing for the less fortunate like yourselves.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Monica wants to maintain her friendship with Beth, but also wants to succeed with Vocal Adrenaline. Monica choses Vocal Adrenaline.
• Continuity Nod: All over the place due to it being a sequel to the original show.
  • Rachel is a Broadway star and married to Jesse St. James, Brittany and Santana still are together, as are Kurt and Blaine.
  • Vocal Adrenaline points out that New Directions only won Nationals with Rachel's help, and technically the second time was only as an advisor since Will had returned by that point. Rachel also mentions New Directions and the Trouble Tones almost beating them at Nationals during the years between the show and now, indicating that both are still active clubs at McKinely.
  • While walking into the Kenmore Community Centre following Beth's botched audition, Rachel sings "Get It Right".
  • Rachel mentions Dalton Academy burning down several years ago, but Reed points out that that was the Columbus campus and he attends the one in Akron.
  • Just like Rachel, Beth walks into Glee Club with tape over her mouth in protest to her perceived mistreatment and "silencing".
• The Cover Changes the Meaning: In fine Glee tradition.
  • "Get it Right", a Glee original, was initially about Rachel screwing up her romantic relationship with Finn; when she reprises it in episode one it's about her screwing up her relationship with Beth.
  • "One" from A Chorus Line was about the titular backup dancers singing the praises of an unseen star. When Beth sings it in episode 3 it's about her concerns about being relegated to Rachel's back-ups in the club. Aaliyah, Camilla, and Julian then express the same sentiment about Beth. Finally, the song fades out with Monica nervously practicing in front of Vocal Adrenaline.
  • When Beth crashes the Vocal Adrenaline rehearsals Monica turns "The Sound" by The 1975 into a mash-up with Carly Simon's "You're So Vain", taking it from a generic break-up song to one telling Beth how selfish and controlling she is - and that Monica no longer needs or wants her.
• Disabled Snarker: Drew is Deaf and the king of signed snarking.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Rachel is trying to avoid favouritism and inflating Beth’s ego by giving equal time and attention to the other Glee Club members and not giving Beth a solo automatically. While the other club members are unaware of Rachel's motivations and still see it as favouritism, Beth thinks that Rachel thinks that she’s such a good singer that she'd blow everyone else out of the water.
• Duet Bonding: The Reprisals finally come together singing "Beatdown Generation" by Millington.
  • While Luke doesn't sing during Cassidy's audition, they make a lot of cute eye contact while he's playing bass.
• Dumb Jock: Bradley's on the football team and doesn't have much capacity past that.
  Tony: Yeah he doesn't have much of an...awareness of anything, but he's a good dude.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Episode four opens with Camilla admiring a shirtless Bradley playing basketball.
• Enemy Mine: Sharice decides to help The Reprisals steal the Akron Dance Society Swing Revival spot from Vocal Adrenaline because they have been poaching football players and dancers from the cheer squad for years.
• Enfant Terrible: Charles, Ivy and Patrick of Vocal Adrenaline bully and terrify adults. They even go so far as to TP the community centre where the Reprisals hold their rehearsals.
• Flash Forward Fic: It follows the events after the end of the show when Beth (Quinn and Puck's daughter) is in high school.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Camilla and Bradley had been friends as children, but Bradley moved away for several years. Camilla was banking on Bradley remembering who she is, but unfortunately he's forgotten her name by the time the reunite.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: A lot of Beth's hostility towards Rachel comes from a feeling that she's second best to her adoptive sister in Shelby's eye. They eventually reconcile after Beth gets smacked down by Monica and Vocal Adrenaline - Rachel realizes that Beth needs a sister and Beth realizes she can't go on alone.
  • There's a bit of a tension between Sharice and Cassidy as the latter is an awkward nerd while the former is a popular cheerleader.
• Grade Skipper: Sharice's younger sister, Cassidy, is about thirteen and a freshman at Carmel High. Sharice finds it extremely embarrassing.
• Hammerspace: To demonstrate the breakup/makeup pattern of Bradley and Sharice's relationship, Camilla whips out a chart from seemingly nowhere.
• Hiding Behind Religion: The "Christianity" of Our Lady of Perpetual Meekness, the private school Mary and Michael go to, is stated to be a cover for teaching the classism, sexism, racism, and homophobia of Religious Right.
• Happily Adopted: Beth dearly loves her adoptive mother Shelby.
• Heroic BSoD: Beth basically shuts down after being rejected from Vocal Adrenaline. She gets another when Monica lets Beth know in no uncertain terms that their friendship is over.
• High School: The fic takes place at Carmel High, though Reed, Mary, and Michael all go to different schools as well.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter gets it's name from a quote in said chapter. Any chapter with a song being performed in it will be Titled After the Song.
• Imagine Spot: Several of the musical numbers take place in these.
• It's All About Me: Several members of the cast suffer from this, as they're very dramatic teens. Beth, Julian, and Aaliyah all compete pretty fiercely for the position of lead vocalist basically from the get-go. Episode 3 is even titled "All About Me".
  • It finally comes to a head when Aaliyah and Julian perform "ME!" by Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie, resulting in Aayliah tripping Julian and injuring his wrist. Fortunately it turns out to only be a sprain.
• It's All My Fault: Rachel and Beth finally owe up to all the problems they've caused for the Reprisals because of their selfishness. Rachel apologizes to Tanisha for letting the kids get too out of hand and acknowledges that she was trying to recreate the original New Directions. Beth apologizes to the club for treating the club as a way to get back at Monica and Vocal Adrenaline.
• Loophole Abuse: Rachel starts her own glee club in a community centre down the street from Carmel High. Although all the initial members and several after that are Carmel students, the club is not technically affiliated with that school - which means they can also accept members from the snobby private school or the local Dalton campus as well.
• Lovable Jock: Tony, who's on the football team, and is a pretty down to earth guy. He makes a point of comforting Beth and tries to shut down the fights that crop up when the club first comes together.
• Mandatory Motherhood: Rachel's feeling pressured by the press and her Broadway friends to have a baby with Jesse, as they are unaware that she's all but infertile.
• The Mole: Reed initially gets accused of being this because he's from Dalton Academy.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Aaliyah's own reaction to when she trips Julian, causing his wrist injury.
• Naïve Newcomer: Tony has no knowledge of show choir or how the world of Glee works when he joins the club, so the characters who are more familiar with the competition circuit (like Beth and Julian) have to explain several things to him to catch him up.
• Nepotism: One of the things Rachel is trying to avoid with The Reprisals when it comes to Beth - with mixed results.
• Only Sane Man: Tony is one of the few members of the Reprisals with a level head on his shoulders and is trying to get Beth, Aaliyah, Camilla, and Julian to work together.
• Original Character: The only main characters from the show proper are Rachel, Shelby, and Beth - and Beth was a baby when she last appeared in canon, so she's practically a new character as well. Some other characters are connected in other ways - most of them go to Carmel High with Vocal Adrenaline, and Reed attends the Dalton Akron campus which has it's own troupe of Warblers.
• Parental Substitute: Rachel's trying to be this for Beth following the accident that put Shelby into a coma, but Beth's not having any of it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Monica's performance of "The Sound/You're So Vain" is this in song form.
  • Sharice gives a regular one to Camilla, telling her that Camilla's going to have a lot of "almosts" in her life.
• The Perfectionist: Everyone in general, but Julian Aldrich takes the cake.
• Rebellious Spirit: Mary has no time for her ultra-conservative school's rules and prejudices, so she regularly cuts class. She only seems to enjoy her gym class because she can "ruckus some girls in field hockey."
• Shipper on Deck: Cassidy for Camilla and Bradley because it's just like a teen soap opera.
• Spicy Latina: Camilla.
• Start My Own: In response to Vocal Adrenaline rejecting Beth, Rachel starts her own glee club out of the Kenmore Community Centre down the street.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Aaliyah manages to manifest from nowhere to shut some shades before Sharice sees Camilla talking to Bradley, give her a spritz of breath freshener and perfume, and disappear before Bradley returns.
• Tough Room: The boys perform at Sharice's party to drum up hype for The Reprisals, but it might as well have been to an empty room. Sharice considers the fact that her party wasn't completely ruined by it a win, which shows how cynical she was about the entire thing.
• Toxic Friend Influence: The leaders of Vocal Adrenaline have been encouraging Monica to ditch Beth, and have been encouraging some Alpha Bitch traits. But Beth hasn't been the best friend either, often being very controlling of her song choices so Monica wouldn't upstage her.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: The fic is set in roughly 2024.
• Villain Song: Basically any number performed by Vocal Adrenaline, though "Candy Store" takes the cake since, much like in the source material, it's about convincing Monica to abandon her friend and join them instead.
• You're Not My Father: Beth initially refuses to see Rachel as her sister, or any family rather.